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Each year the Supernatural fandom eagerly awaits the Gag Reel, which captures for all time the antics and bloopers that occurred during the prior season’s filming. Its unedited moments tell the story of what really happens on set. This abbreviated reality show is quite different from the perfected version of the episode an audience sees after multiple takes, precise editing and music and sound track additions deliver the storywriter’s and director’s desired visions.

Convention reports create a similar illusion of perfection. The stunning pictures that have emerged from Supernatural conventions in the past few years have become an art form unto themselves. In the hands of truly talented photographers, the combination of lighting, makeup and superb camera lenses capture images of subjects whose beauty could qualify them to be Greek gods and goddesses, resulted in breathtaking portrayals of the con’s stage shows.

Similar to the edited footage of filming, the best convention pictures that are shared on websites and social media are culled from literally thousands of shots. These final images are cropped and filtered until maybe a dozen masterpieces emerge. As I was sorting through my reel of pictures from the Chicago 2016 Supernatural convention hoping to find a few of these perfect moments , I began to wonder: In addition to the sanitized, edited version of the convention, what if I shared the pre-edited, raw footage - the behind-the-scenes reality of photographing conventions?

The most spontaneous moments of the convention rarely make the final reports. They happen too fast. Either the camera isn’t ready or is pointed in the wrong direction so the moment is missed or off center, or the subject is moving faster than the shutter speed so the image is blurry (well, at least with my skills and camera!). When I realized that I have some truly spontaneous moments captured on film (well, digital memory actually) that you would never see because the shots are – less than perfect, I decided to make my own montage of the "rejects" from the cutting room floor. What resulted is the first ever Supernatural Convention Found Footage Report!

I loosely categorize these ill-fated shots into 3 groups: Almost Perfect Profiles, Laugh Out Loud Moments, and Would-You-PLEASE-Stop-Moving-For-One-Darn-Second Blurs!

The first grouping are the shots I wish I had gotten. A better photographer with a better camera probably would have. Don’t worry, my more serious, traditional convention report will include perfectly clear, well-lit, magical images of these stars. I already have all those pictures identified and separated into a special folder. The "almost" pictures, though, have their own charm. I had three criteria for choosing them: 1) the picture wasn’t perfect, but more importantly 2) it revealed the true personality of the person or people, i.e. it caught them in an unguarded, spontaneous moment, OR 3) the picture told its own story.

The Perfect Profile… Almost

Wait. "Death" ...is ...funny??

Jason Manns is in his element being on stage singing to a packed auditorium.... and "Amara" is charming?